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Creativity and innovative thinking (Tareq al-Suwaidan)

الإبداع والتفكير الابتكاري

Creativity as Tareq al-Suwaidan teaches it in the Leaders' Academy: his definition, 'the process of bringing about something new', the difference between innovative thinking and creativity, lateral thinking, thirty traits of the creative person, and the stages of the 'creativity machine'.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Global / Diaspora

Education

Summary

"Creativity and innovative thinking" is the subject of two lessons by Tareq al-Suwaidan in the Leaders' Academy. He says he normally teaches it over five days. 1 He adds his own definition to the more than two hundred he says exist: "creativity is the process of bringing about something new". 2 He chose "bringing about" rather than "thinking of" on purpose. Thinking of something new is innovative thinking, and it becomes creativity only when it is carried out. He also calls creativity a process with seven steps, not a sudden flash. 3 4 5 The models, percentages and laws below are his teaching. He credits the "creativity machine" to an American method that he says he reworked.

Terms and laws

He separates creativity from neighbouring terms: invention, discovery, imagination, intelligence, talent, giftedness and genius. 6 7 He draws a chain in which imagination becomes a passing thought, the thought becomes an idea, the idea a project, and the project an execution. Only at that last step is it creativity. On the passing thought he cites Ibn al-Jawzi and his Sayd al-Khatir. 8 9 He also says no scientific link between intelligence and creativity has been proven. 10

His laws include "look for the other right answer", "there is a better way to do any work", and "creativity happens only in lateral thinking". 11 12 13 He says about ninety-eight per cent of our thinking time is spent in sequential, logical thinking and only two per cent in lateral thinking. 14 13 He says ninety per cent of five-year-olds are highly creative, but by forty-five only two per cent remain so. He blames schooling and impatience with children's questions. 15 16 17 The mind, he says, has thirty-one distinct abilities, and each can be strengthened with its own exercises, like a muscle. 18

The creative person

He gives the trainees a sheet of thirty traits of the creative person to rate in themselves. The traits include:

  • solving a problem before knowing how;
  • asking many questions;
  • patience;
  • daydreaming;
  • loving travel and play;
  • strange ideas;
  • working only at what one loves. 19 20 21 22 23 The list continues in the second lesson with forgetfulness, many interests, optimism, high ambition, dislike of routine, resistance to group pressure and boldness. He gives al-Jahiz as an example of the forgetful creative mind. 24 25 26 27 28 Twenty-three traits or more mark a person as creative. He says about ninety per cent of this group passed that mark. 29

He then lists ten places where creative ideas tend to come, which he says are in his book "Principles of Creativity". At the top are the shower and the drive to work; they also come before and after sleep, in a boring meeting, while reading or exercising, and on night walks. 30 31

The creativity machine

The second half of the lesson is a workshop on the "creativity machine". He says it was invented in 1992 and is American in origin, and that he changed seventy per cent of its content. He presents it in his book "Creativity Step by Step". 32 33 34 He states a rule, "imitate the best that exists and modify it", and says a change of more than fifteen per cent can be registered as new. 33 He takes the trainees through its stages: preparation with trigger words; investigating an object's parts, materials and uses; transformation by changing, reversing, dividing, combining or rotating it; illumination, when one new, realistic and simple idea is chosen and named; evaluation by a partner; and implementation. 35 36 37 38 39 40 He calls combining things that have nothing to do with each other one of the strongest words of creativity. 41

Implementation is the hardest stage. He says only three per cent of patented ideas are ever carried out. Most failure, he says, lies in marketing rather than production. 42 43 He ends by saying creativity is not hard, that the session only opens a door, and that one should pray before, during and after the work. 44

Connections

Explore the connections

Subject of
Akadimiyyat I'dad al-Qada, the Academy for Preparing Leaders (filmed training course)

People and things also explored

The art of public speaking (Tareq al-Suwaidan)· The art of authorship (Tareq al-Suwaidan)· Life management and choosing one's field· Leadership and the leader's six roles· Situational leadership· Power and influence (Tareq al-Suwaidan)· Vision and mission in strategic planning· Family businesses

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:02:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:02:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:03:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:04:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:17:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:29:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:30:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:27:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:34:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:36:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:36:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:37:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:39:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:42:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:44:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:49:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 11, at 00:54:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:06:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:07:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:12:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:13:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:24:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:25:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:26:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  33. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:28:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  34. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:31:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  35. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:38:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  36. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:46:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  37. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:52:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  38. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:57:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  39. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 01:01:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  40. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 01:03:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  41. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 00:54:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  42. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 01:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  43. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 01:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  44. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 12, at 01:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Creativity and innovative thinking (Tareq al-Suwaidan)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/al-ibda-wal-tafkir-al-ibtikari/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-07.

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